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All for You (album)
All for You is the seventh studio album by Janet Jackson, released on April 16, 2001 by Virgin Records. The album saw Jackson heavily incorporating pop and dance-pop music. Unlike The Velvet Rope, which saw Jackson tackling darker issues like domestic violence and depression, All for You showcased a fluffier pop sound targeted at a younger audience, with lyrical content mainly discussing her then-recent divorce. Billboard ''magazine ranked ''All for You at number 141 on the magazine's Top 200 Albums of the Decade. Release and promotion About a month before its release, MTV aired a special entitled MTV Icon, and its first honorary icon was Jackson herself. Many artists paid tribute to Jackson on that night and commemorated her success since Control, such as Britney Spears, producers Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, Christina Aguilera, 'N Sync, Usher, Mýa, OutKast, P!nk, Aaliyah, Jennifer Lopez, and brother Michael Jackson. Jackson performed "All for You" at the end of the special. Despite strong language and extremely strong sexual content and themes, first pressings of the album did not contain a Parental Advisory warning on it, and thus, a clean version was not offered. In mid-2001, the album was re-released with a Parental Advisory warning on it, along with a bonus track (the remix of "Son of a Gun"). With the re-release, a clean version was then issued, which retained the "Son of a Gun" remix, but omitted the track "Would You Mind", while also censoring "Love Scene (Ooh Baby)", "Trust a Try", "Better Days", and the original album version of "Son of a Gun (I Betcha Think This Song Is About You)". This exact situation happened with Jennifer Lopez's album, J.Lo (2001), which was released around the same time. The re-release marked Jackson's first album to be released with a Parental Advisory label on it; the second being follow-up Damita Jo (2004). On its initial pressings, the album was released without a Parental Advisory sticker, despite featuring very strong language and sexual content in some songs (specifically in the songs "Love Scene (Ooh Baby)", "Would You Mind", "Trust a Try", "Son of a Gun" and "Better Days"). It was later re-released in "explicit" and "clean" versions (both added the P. Diddy remix of "Son of a Gun (I Betcha Think This Song Is About You)" as a bonus track, while the edited disc also removed the steamy "Would You Mind"). Due to the explicit nature of the track "Would You Mind", the entire song was cut from the clean version of the album, and the album was banned in Singapore, as Jackson's management refused to remove the track from the album. In addition the 2001 re-issue of the album, a Deluxe Edition of the album was further released in November 2001 as All For You: DVD Edition with a bonus DVD featuring music videos (some of which had been previously unavailable on home video), interviews and behind the scenes footage, spanning from the promotion of the album janet. to the promotion and making of All For You. The version of the album included in the set is the clean version, with an additional remix which was not included on either versions of the album's original re-issue. Critical reception Upon its release, All for You received generally positive reviews from most music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 73, based on 14 reviews, which indicates "generally favorable reviews". Stephen Thomas Erlewine of Allmusic favored All for You over her last studio album, The Velvet Rope, stating "Four years later, marked by one hidden marriage revealed through a divorce, Janet returned with All for You, an album that is as about sex as much as The Velvet Rope, yet there's a key difference -- it feels sexy, not pornographic." Tom Sinclair of Entertainment Weekly gave the album a 'B' rating, stating "Despite a few missteps, All for You is about as good as modern diva-pop gets, with a higher ratio of worthy-to-mediocre songs than might be expected. Granted, that's not saying much. But it adds up to a lot more than most female singers have done for us lately." Gene Stout of The Seattle Post-Intelligencer called All for You "one of the best of her career". With a three-out-of-four star rating, Steve Jones of USA Today said "on this fifth collaboration with producers James "Jimmy Jam" Harris and Terry Lewis, the singer is in a sexy, fun-loving mood ... While she overdoes the between-song interludes here, she never fails to get you to move. When it comes to burning up a dance floor, she is still Ms. Jackson." Anthony DeCurtis of Rolling Stone gave it a three-and-a-half out-of-five star rating, saying "...on All for You, Jackson cranks the heat higher still. At thirty-five, Jackson is now an R&B veteran, and she's earned her stature not through innovation but through consistency. All for You admittedly does not break much new ground, but it's just as fresh, familiar and appealing as you've come to expect from Jackson, and that's no small achievement." John Mulvey of Yahoo! Music UK referred to the album as "her most unnerving and plausible character thus far; the divorcee on the prowl." He went on to say that "This is a much more satisfying album than The Velvet Rope, even if most of the songs are overlong and a few juggle satin sheet-cliches with self-help ones to numbing effect. Nevertheless, All for You stands as a monument to the positive effects of divorce." With a five-out-of-ten star rating, Piers Martin of NME commented saying "All for You finds Jackson in predatory mode, keen to reclaim both in the boudoir and on the dancefloor territory which is today dominated by pneumatic mini-Janets like Britney, Christina and J-Lo. Once Jam and Lewis have finished humiliating their mannequin, however, out come the hits. 'You Ain't Right' and 'All for You' are faultless funk affairs, as instant as anything from 'Rhythm Nation', 'Come On Get Up' marries tribal house to FM pop, while 'Someone to Call My Lover' recalls Aaliyah's 'Try Again' in its squelchy simplicity. Even Jackson's duet with Carly Simon, a digitally remastered interpolation of 'You're So Vain' named 'Son of a Gun', proves a smart choice." The New York Times music critic Jon Pareles commented saying "All for You isn't as immediately melodic as Ms. Jackson's previous albums, but it compensates for lost catchiness with unabashed strangeness." Sal Cinquemani of Slant Magazine was less favorable of the album, rating it two-out-of five stars, saying "In an attempt to make fun and cheery pop music, Janet & Co. have completely abandoned introspection and relevance, leaving behind a generally banal and unchallenging collection of songs." He also commented on her duet with Carly Simon saying "The album's biggest misstep is "Son of a Gun (I Betcha Think This Song Is About You)", featuring Carly Simon. The song is like a car wreck: It's impossible not to be horrified yet strangely intrigued." Natalie Nichols of the Los Angeles Times commented, saying "The airy grooves and twinkly soul-pop feel overblown even in better moments, including the upbeat title track, with its old-school-funk hook, and the slamming let's-work-it-out plea "Trust a Try"." Commercial performance All for You debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200 and the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart, selling 605,128 copies in its first week. It was Jackson's fifth straight number one debut in the United States, and the biggest opening week sales of her career. In its second week All for You fell to number 2 with 310,000 copies sold. In its third chart week, the album fell to number 3 with sales of 215,000 copies, and in its fourth chart week, the album fell to number 5 with sales of 149,000 copies, achieving an estimated total of 1,279,128 copies sold in its first month of release. Outside of the United States, it was a commercial success, debuting at number one in Canada (with 37,200 copies sold at the first week), becoming the first of her career in Canada, and in the top five in Australia, The Netherlands, Europe, France, Germany, Japan, (with 63,450 copies sold at the first week) Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, and The United Kingdom. The album was first certified gold by the RIAA on May 18, 2001 denoting 500,000 units shipped within the United States. The same day, the album's certification was raised to platinum, denoting 1,000,000 units shipped then double platinum denoting 2,000,000 units shipped. In Denmark, the album was certified Gold, and is her only certified album in the country.34 It's also certified Gold in Finland, New Zealand, and Belgium. As of September 2009, All for You has sold 3,107,000 copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan. According to the artist's website, it has sold over seven million copies worldwide. Singles In 2000, Jackson released the single "Doesn't Really Matter" from the Nutty Professor II: The Klumps soundtrack. It was a number-one hit in the last quarter of 2000. Though it was initially included on the film's soundtrack, it was later included on All for You, albeit with a slightly different intro, a shortened outro and two dance breaks added towards the middle of the song. This is the same version that was performed at the 2000 MTV Video Awards on September 7, 2000. The album's title track was released as the first official single associated with the album and became Jackson's most successful hit single in the United States since 1993's "That's the Way Love Goes", reaching number one on the Billboard Hot 100 and remaining there for seven weeks. The album's next single, "Someone to Call My Lover", was also a success, peaking at number three and remaining there for three weeks. The following single, "Son of a Gun (I Betcha Think This Song Is About You)" (which featured Carly Simon and repurposed her 1972 hit "You're So Vain") did not meet the same success as the album's previous singles; peaking at number twenty-eight. As opposed to the original album version being released as a single, the song was remixed and added rap verses by Missy Elliott and (on some versions) P. Diddy. This version of the song was later included as a bonus track on the album's re-release and subsequent Deluxe Edition release. There were plans to release "Come On Get Up" as a commercial single in 2002 and a video was to be shot for the single, but it was canceled. Instead, promo CDs and vinyls were issued to DJs in Japan and America only in November 2001. Also, on MTV's TRL in Spring 2001, Jackson had told Carson Daly that "Trust a Try" would be a future single, but there were no plans for the single release. Instead of releasing "Come On Get Up" and "Trust a Try", Jackson began work on her next studio album, Damita Jo. Accolades Track listing #"Intro" #"You Ain't Right" #"All for You" #"2wayforyou" (interlude) #"Come On Get Up" #"When We Ooo" #"China Love" #"Love Scene (Ooh Baby)" #"Would You Mind" #"Lame" (interlude) #"Trust a Try" #"Clouds" (interlude) #"Son of a Gun (I Betcha Think This Song is About You)" #"Truth" #"Theory" (interlude) #"Someone to Call My Lover" #"Feels So Right" #"Doesn't Really Matter" #"Better Days" #"Outro" Re-release ;CD #"Intro" #"You Ain't Right" #"All for You" #"2wayforyou" (interlude) #"Come On Get Up" #"When We Ooo" #"Love Scene (Ooh Baby)" #"Lame" (interlude) #"Trust a Try" #"Clouds (interlude) #"Son of a Gun (I Betcha Think This Song is About You)" #"Truth" #"Theory" (interlude) #"Someone to Call My Lover" #"Feels So Right" #"Doesn't Really Matter" #"Better Days" #"Outro" "Son of a Gun (I Betcha Think This Song is About You)" Diddy Remix featuring Missy Elliott and P. Diddy) ;DVD #"That's the Way Love Goes" #"[[If]" #"Again" #"Because of Love" #"Any Time, Any Place" #"You Want This" #"Janet. - Behind the Scenes" #"Got 'til It's Gone" #"Together Again" #"Together Again (Deeper Remix)" #"I Get Lonely" #"Go Deep" #"You" #"Every Time" #"The Velvet Rope" - Behind the Scenes" #"All for You" #"Someone to Call My Lover" #"All for You" - Behind the Scenes #MTV Icon Performance - "All for You" Personnel *Alex Al – bass *David Anthony – producer *David Ashton – assistant engineer *David Barry – guitar *Lee Blaske – string arrangements *Mike Bozzi – assistant mastering engineer *Evelina Chao – viola Nathaniel Cole – violin * Fran Cooper – make-up *D-Man – remixing, mixing *Jonathan Dayton – video director *Diddy – remixing *Sean Donnelly – design, animation *René Elizondo, Jr. – video director *Missy Elliott – performer *Valerie Faris – video director *Brian Gardner – mastering *Charles Gray – viola *Gael Guilarte – assistant engineer * Jeri Heiden – art direction *Steve Hodge – engineer, mixing *Janet Jackson – vocals, producer, executive producer * Jimmy Jam – multi-instruments, producer, executive producer *Seb Janiak – video director *John Kennedy – violin *Kathy Kienzle – harp *Joshua Koestenbaum – cello *Tom Kornacker – violin *Kim Kyu Young – violin *Terry Lewis – multi-instruments, producer, executive producer *David Mallet – video director *Andrew McPherson – photography *Dave Meyers – video director *Karen Mitchell – make-up assistant * James C. Moore – producer *Adrian Morgan – producer *Elsa Nilsson – violin *Julia Persitz – violin *Alice Preves – viola *Q-Tip – rap *Jason Rankins – assistant engineer *Alexander Richbourg – drum programming, MIDI programming, Pro-Tools *David Rideau – engineer, mixing *Rockwilder – producer, drum programming, MIDI programming *Matthew Rolston – video director Mike Scott – guitar *Dominic Sena – video director Chris Seul – engineer * Laura Sewell – cello Dexter Simmons – mixing *Carly Simon – performer Daryl Skobba – cello * Xavier Smith – drum programming, assistant engineer, mixing, MIDI programming *Smog – design *Michal Sobieski – violin *Tamas Strasser – viola *Tom Sweeney – assistant engineer, mixing * James "Big Jim" Wright – keyboards *Bradley Yost – assistant engineer, mixing *Janet Zeitoun – hair stylist Charts Year-end charts Decade-end charts Certifications